Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 46182 Location: Los Skandolous, California Country:
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:11 am Post subject:
The death of trust Last year�fs triple disaster�\earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown�\has shattered Japanese faith in many of the country�fs institutions
ON MARCH 11th, the first anniversary of the day that turned her world upside down, 13-year-old Wakana Yokoyama will be performing a rice-planting dance for her fellow villagers. It will be a happy occasion, because she will be with old school friends she rarely sees any more. But it will be tinged with sadness, too; because although there are still villagers, there is no longer a village.
On that bitterly cold day a year ago Ukedo (pictured above) took the full force of the tsunami. It killed about 180 of the village�fs 1,800 residents, including two of Wakana�fs grandparents. Some might have been saved, but when the first of three reactor buildings at the nearby Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant blew up, the authorities�f focus shifted to evacuating the living rather than searching for survivors. Wakana, her family and thousands of others were ordered to drive to evacuation shelters which, although farther away, were directly in the path of the plant�fs plume of radioactivity.
Wakana now lives in Koriyama, a city 60km west of Fukushima Dai-ichi. She attends a new school without any of her old classmates, and may go outside for only three hours a day because of lingering radiation. As time slips by, it is harder to stay in touch with others from Ukedo, where she grew up breathing the salt smell of the Pacific coast. But her eyes light up as she talks about the folk dances she performs, which are hundreds of years old. Keeping alive the traditions of a village she may never live in again is a strange responsibility for a child, but it is one she understands.
The more edifying part of the story of Japan�fs response to the disasters of 3/11, as it is known, is one of individual burdens borne, of traditions reinvigorated and of communal self-reliance. It is not the whole story. A whopping 14.3 trillion Yen ($175 billion) has been approved in four extra central-government budgets for recovery from a disaster that killed more than 19,000 people and made about 325,000 homeless. The government�fs Reconstruction Agency, which co-ordinates the way ministries spend money for rebuilding towns and villages, did not open its doors until February 10th, 11 months after the disaster.
So those dislodged from their homes have been thrown back on their own resources. Their response is part of what Hakuhodo, one of Japan�fs two foremost advertising agencies, dubs �gOperation Me�h: a growing embrace of autonomy in a country that has traditionally operated through a subtle form of groupthink, with challenges to authority well hidden.
Thanks in large part to the spirit of self-help, a lot of the more obvious damage was cleared up quickly. Immediately after March 11th the tsunami-hit coastline looked like a Dali painting, strewn with the skeletons of buildings, crumpled vehicles and overturned ships; now there are neat roads and traffic lights. But the sunken roads are still liable to flood, and there are almost no houses or shops. The sheer expanse of the emptiness is shocking.
Operation Us
The public cannot fail to notice the contrast between official sluggishness and the emboldened efforts of people doing things for each other.
Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 46182 Location: Los Skandolous, California Country:
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 11:57 am Post subject:
bmwracer wrote:
^ Another sad, tragic example of how a government fails to take care of its constituents.
Indeed. Despite the fact that I agree with the article that the level of mistrust of government has increased post 3/11...the problem lies in the fact that this mistrust has not motivated real political change or even a fundamental shift in the framework of thought espoused by most Japanese. What has repeatedly been characterized as the worst disaster to befall Japan since WWII has not seemed to change the status quo, one year on, which is quite appalling.
Like WTF? What will it take. Their whole way of life would have to collapse first I think...but then it would be too late.
I'm not sure if the media is being fair. Yeah, it's a triple disaster. The last mentioned is irreversibly a Chernobyl.
Some villages like those in Miyagi will never recover since the land has sunk and the sea level is now higher. It was an eerie sight. Last year i cheered when i see buildings that survived the tsunami. This year, when I saw the place again, they have become deserted buildings, or probably the only building standing in the open space.
I just googled to check youtube (someone actually bothered to video and drive along the north east coast of Iwate Prefecture in Nov 2011) . And i found recent google maps of Iwate, Miyagi, Miyako, and Ofunato I really marvelled at their scale of recovery. ALL the roads were cleared. Probably 80% of the debris were cleared. There are reconstruction sites mushrooming. Consider the scale of destruction it is an amazing pace of recovery. I don't think they are getting the huge scale of assistance which Aceh received from the NGOs.
Hey, their prefab houses come with attached bathrooms and a washing machine.
BBC did a documentary which covered interviews with child survivors. When the children were asked of their future, their perspectives have changed. They all wanted to be somebody to help others. Awesome.
Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 46182 Location: Los Skandolous, California Country:
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:02 am Post subject:
Eyeyore wrote:
I'm not sure if the media is being fair. Yeah, it's a triple disaster. The last mentioned is irreversibly a Chernobyl.
Some villages like those in Miyagi will never recover since the land has sunk and the sea level is now higher. It was an eerie sight. Last year i cheered when i see buildings that survived the tsunami. This year, when I saw the place again, they have become deserted buildings, or probably the only building standing in the open space.
I just googled to check youtube (someone actually bothered to video and drive along the north east coast of Iwate Prefecture in Nov 2011) . And i found recent google maps of Iwate, Miyagi, Miyako, and Ofunato I really marvelled at their scale of recovery. ALL the roads were cleared. Probably 80% of the debris were cleared. There are reconstruction sites mushrooming. Consider the scale of destruction it is an amazing pace of recovery. I don't think they are getting the huge scale of assistance which Aceh received from the NGOs.
Hey, their prefab houses come with attached bathrooms and a washing machine.
BBC did a documentary which covered interviews with child survivors. When the children were asked of their future, their perspectives have changed. They all wanted to be somebody to help others. Awesome.
While I agree progress has been made in the aftermath, I don't think it's come along far enough given the gravity of the situation. That doesn't even bother with the discussion that the disaster at Fukushima could have been wholly avoided if proper safety protocols were but in place. It's come to light that TEPCO and the government failed to adhere to a standard of care that could have prevented countless deaths. Cut corners with nuclear safety in an island nation prone to seismic activity and voila.
The tepid attitude of the central government toward the victims in Tohoku is what's spurred the desire of people to help one another because it's not coming from the one place that's failed to address their issues adequately: Tokyo.
It's a difficult situation to be sure, but instead of capitalizing on the disaster to catalyze a new framework of political action, this recent tragedy has proven that the Japanese shoganai culture is alive and well.
Coincidentally, I did what they did in the aftermath ----dig Google maps to see how those streets look like before 11 mar 2011. I can't find them now. Last summer Google replaced all the maps in the Tohoru region.
This subject is so addictive. I found another article from Mainichi Daily. Dear friends from the west coast, if you think your governor has been doing nothing since March 2011, it's time to give them a
This one, not my favourite:
I couldn't recall which documentary it was. It showed interviews with ex-workers and current workers of TEPCO. One of which revealed that the plant manager of TEPCO took upon himself to tell the plant workers to leave immediately when the backup cooling system failed and they couldn't get it to work manually. Everyone knows it's a meltdown. He saw the stress and tension accumulating when all of them were trapped in the office. When the then-PM knew about it, he drove into the TEPCO HQ at pre-dawn hours and had video conference with the plant workers, telling them if they leave, Japan would be finished. That was how the TEPCO 50 workers came to being.
Panasonic sends 100,000 LEDs down Tokyo river, mates tech with tradition
If you'd been by the shore of the Sumida River in central Tokyo this past weekend, you would have noticed that it was glowing a distinct shade of blue. That's because Panasonic decided to kick off the first-ever Tokyo Hotaru (fireflies) festival by sending 100,000 EVERLED light bulbs down the river, both to mimic fireflies as well as to pay homage to a Japanese tradition of floating candles on the water. Before you cringe too much at the thought of the environmental impact, rest assured that Panasonic minimized the footprint of its aquatic LED parade. All the bulbs ran on solar power (presumably, charged during the day) that kept Evolta batteries fed inside, and the entire lot was scooped up in a large net afterwards. We love the exhibition as a large-scale demo of sustainable lighting -- you may just want to avoid fishing along the Sumida's shoreline for awhile in case you catch a straggler.
Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 46182 Location: Los Skandolous, California Country:
Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 10:40 pm Post subject:
bmwracer wrote:
Panasonic sends 100,000 LEDs down Tokyo river, mates tech with tradition
If you'd been by the shore of the Sumida River in central Tokyo this past weekend, you would have noticed that it was glowing a distinct shade of blue. That's because Panasonic decided to kick off the first-ever Tokyo Hotaru (fireflies) festival by sending 100,000 EVERLED light bulbs down the river, both to mimic fireflies as well as to pay homage to a Japanese tradition of floating candles on the water. Before you cringe too much at the thought of the environmental impact, rest assured that Panasonic minimized the footprint of its aquatic LED parade. All the bulbs ran on solar power (presumably, charged during the day) that kept Evolta batteries fed inside, and the entire lot was scooped up in a large net afterwards. We love the exhibition as a large-scale demo of sustainable lighting -- you may just want to avoid fishing along the Sumida's shoreline for awhile in case you catch a straggler.
These are LEDs that are casualties of their faltering flat panel TV business. Instead of throwing them away...they threw the LEDs in the river.
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